Amazing fusion of Indian music styles

Zakir Hussain is possibly the world's greatest percussionist, certainly one of the world's most prodigiously gifted musicians.

A classical tabla virtuoso, he is feted in his home country, India, as a national treasure, and is a favourite accompanist for many of India's greatest classical musicians and dancers, from Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar to Birju Maharaj and Shivkumar Sharma.

He is also considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement with many historic collaborations to his famous name, including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin, and L. Shankar, the Diga Rhythm Band, Making Music, Planet Drum with Mickey Hart.

He has made recordings and performances with artists as diverse as George Harrison, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Airto Moreira, Giovanni Hidalgo, the Kodo drummers and Charles Lloyd.

The songs in Ismail Merchant's new film The Goddess, to be belted out by pop diva Tina Turner, are also composed by Zakir Hussain.

His AK05 programme Masters of Rhythm and Movement is another amazing fusion of Indian classical music both Hindustani, from the north, and Carnatic, from the south, in which he is joined by percussionists Taufiq Qureshi and Selva Ganesh and violinist and singer, Ganesh.

Also on stage will be Kathak dancer, Antonia Minnecola, Hussain's wife, and members of the Manipuri Jagoi Marup, an ensemble of folk musicians and dancers from the east.

Hussain loves to work with classical dancers, who embody the emotions played out in the music.

"There has been a 250-year confluence of classical drum and dance repertoire," he says. "So we have a lot in common."

But the Manipuri performers are of a different ilk. Tribal, their music is "as pure and untainted as music can be".

"I am always looking for new things to do," says Hussain. "I am always a student, always searching for new ways and new things to learn. And I am always searching for links between the classical traditions and the traditions that have evolved in other parts of the world."

He says it is pure fun when these diverse forms of music meet and merge.

In addition, Polynesian group Te Vaka will work with Hussain's imported musicians for three days before the performance, to produce another fascinating fusion, this one with a Pacific flavour.

If three days seems an impossibly short time to produce a performance piece from scratch, Hussain is unfazed.

"The bulk of my musicians are used to working together, and used to producing music spontaneously, to creating, to improvising. We can blend, adjust, change shape. It will be easy to adapt to the Pacific Island musicians. We are not expecting the Pacific Islanders to work in Indian mode. Three days will be plenty of time."

In the fortnight leading up to Sunday's performance, Hussain has been poring over Te Vaka's tapes. He visited New Zealand a year ago and first heard Pacific music 10 years ago.

"My job is to make sure all the musicians find a common place to work in," he says. "And to prevent fist fights - no, that is a joke. To know the best abilities of the various groups and to bring those to the fore." 

Performance

*Who: Zakir Hussain
*Where and when: Town Hall, Mar 6, 4pm